Patriotic People's Movement (Finland)

Isänmaallinen kansanliike (usually abbreviated to IKL), the Finnish Patriotic People's Movement was the follow-up of the fascist Lapua Movement. It was founded in June 5, 1932 and dissolved in September 23, 1944. The methods were practically the same as those of the Lapua movement, expect that IKL participated in elections. The IKL uniform was black shirt with blue tie, inspired by the Italian and German fascists.

IKL participated in parliamentary elections. In 1933 it was in alliance with the conservative National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and got 14 seats out of 200. Kokoomus collapsed from 42 to 18 seats. After the collapse Juho Kusti Paasikivi became the chairman of Kokoomus. He weeded out all IKL symphathizers from the party. IKL kept it's 14 seats in the elections of 1936 and shrank to 8 seats in 1939.

In 1938 Minister of the Interior, Urho Kekkonen banned IKL, but the local court in Helsinki lifted the ban. In the aftermath of the Continuation War, IKL was banned four days after the armistice between Finland and Soviet Union was signed in 1944.

It is interesting to note that the leading anti-IKL characters on the political righ later became presidents of Finland, Paasikivi in 1946-1956 and Kekkonen in 1956-1982.

IKL was re-established under the name Isänmaallinen Kansallis-Liitto in 1993, but it is politically insignificant.

See also: Politics of Finland, History of Finland.